Support for People with Disabilities

18/06/2013

“I have a placement at Homecare Independent Living on Monday and Wednesday and it is brilliant. I love all the different IT functions and I’ve been working with computers for 20 years. I really love it at Homecare.”

These were the words of Aidan Grant from Armagh, about whom a short film was screened to delegates at the ‘Doing it Differently’ best practice event held in Newry recently.

Jointly hosted by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust and the HSE, the best practice event is part of an innovative cross border programme, which is enabling people with disabilities to participate more actively in all aspects of community life. At this cross border best practice event, a number of people with disabilities shared their personal experiences of the project and how their goals have been achieved.

Funding for the project has been provided by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA programme, secured by the Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT) Citizenship Project. Since commencing in 2010, the CAWT Citizenship project has assisted 145 people with disabilities in the Southern Trust area in identifying and accessing a variety of daytime activities and opportunities. Over 500 people in total have benefited from both the day opportunity services and respite support across the border region. Participants on the project are aged between 18 and 64 years of age and include those with learning, physical and/or sensory disabilities.

Opening the event Mairead McAlinden, Chief Executive of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust said: “I am delighted that the Southern Trust is offering enhanced services to people with disabilities, through this EU funded project. The project has supported and assisted us to fundamentally change our approach to the delivery of traditional day services. It has assisted us to link our service users to a variety of social, leisure, education, and employment opportunities, thus enabling genuine citizenship based on enhanced choice and access for people with disabilities.”

Commenting Micéal Crilly, Assistant Director Physical and Sensory Disability at the Southern Trust highlighted the achievements. He said: “This project is about giving greater choice and flexibility to the person with a disability. It has been wonderful to hear, directly from the individuals concerned, how the project has helped them to achieve their goals and the opportunities that have been provided within local communities. It has been such a positive experience for so many people.”

Those addressing the ‘Doing it Differently’ event included people with disabilities and employers, who shared their personal experiences of the project. Other speakers at the event included representatives from HSE, CAWT, NIUSE and Cedar.

Neil Jelly enjoys a mixture of Day Opportunities which include sports, animal husbandry at The ARC in Bessbrook, and a work placement at a local hotel. Neil said: “My favourite day of the week is Monday because I love the sports and the football. We are involved in an FAI football league and we came first in our division.”

Notes to Editor
1. The CAWT ‘Citizenship for People with Disabilities’ project is part of CAWT’s ‘Putting Patients, Clients and Families First’ initiative funded by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA programme.
2. The CAWT Citizenship for People with a Disability project has two parts: The Day Opportunities Service is providing alternatives to the traditional model of day services for people with a disability. In addition to the health services delivering these services directly, a number of providers were contracted to deliver Day Opportunity Services under this aspect of the project and include Disability Action, Mencap and RehabCare. The Community Awareness Programme is being delivered as a pilot project in Strabane and Donegal Councils whereby local communities are being supported to make their services more accessible to people with a disability.
3. The European Union’s INTERREG IVA programme is designed to support cross border co-operation, social cohesion and economic development between regions of the EU. The Northern Ireland/Ireland programme is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body and covers all of Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and Western Scotland. It aims to address the economic and social disadvantage that can result from the existence of a border.